When folks are forming discipleship relationships, and building healthy missional communities, on many occasions I’ve had people say to me,
“I’m not this huge gatherer and people person. I’m not naturally wired to be the life of the party.”
Living life as a ‘family on mission’ with others in community is a big commitment. But starting or transitioning small groups that were pulled together for reasons other than discipleship and mission, and asking folks to now to commit to increasingly live like a family, together on mission, can be tough sledding… It’s hard!
This week on the Lifeschool Podcast we’ll try and help answer the question, “Why is missional living so hard?” while also giving you hope, practical tips, and a little help during the hard times.
Who’s Your Daddy?
Imagine that you’ve been living in your house for a few years, going about your busy life: working, raising a family, going to school—all the normal stuff of life that keeps us focused on…well, ourselves. What would you do if all of a sudden you realized your own father, sister, or brother was alone–in terrible need–and had been living right next door?
Maybe they are, and you never noticed.
Who does the Bible say is in “our family”? If we consider ourselves Christians, is it just Christians, or if we are Jewish is it just other Jewish people? Can we get by with only treating people who are just like us and believe the exact same things we believe as family?
Or are we really called to treat everyone like they’re part of the family?
I guess the answer to the question of who you will treat like they’re your family is best answered by asking, would you treat Jesus like a member of your own family? Jesus told his closest friends a story one day to help them grasp the reality of how he sees everyone, and how he would hope we would see and treat others.
“When I was hungry you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, when I needed clothes you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, when I was in prison you came to visit me…. And his friends were like, “…We did…?”
He goes on and says, “I’m telling you the truth: Whenever you did one of these things for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me–you did it to me.”
I see it like this: We have some brothers and sisters out there that are estranged from Dad, from God. They don’t trust him and stopped coming to holiday meals and family functions long ago. They are having a hard time believing that he really loves them. But he does, enough that he sent a Son–Jesus– our own brother, to rescue and save them. It cost him his life, but that’s how much he loves them and wants them restored to a full and wonderful life in his family.
So let’s stop worrying about who’s in or who’s out, saved or unsaved. Let’s treat everyone like family…the way God does.[clickToTweet tweet=”Let’s stop worrying about who’s in or who’s out. Let’s treat everyone like family…the way God does. ” quote=”Let’s stop worrying about who’s in or who’s out, saved or unsaved. Let’s treat everyone like family…the way God does. “]
God is in the adoption business. He wants you and everyone else in his family. He says, I’ve got some pretty weird kids, but you’ll grow to love them!
The next best time to start treating people as part of the family is now.
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But how does anyone come to trust and love Jesus if they don’t know him or have not heard and experienced the truth about him? (Romans 10:14)
Yet interestingly, Jesus’ command in Matthew 28 was actually to go and make disciples who make disciples. Nothing mentioned here about evangelism.
So which is it, which is more important: discipleship or evangelism? (more…)
“If I’ve heard it once I’ve heard it a thousand times!” We hear the most common excuses, fears, and roadblocks to discipleship and mission over and over. The reason they come up so often is… they must be real. Or at least we think they are.
This week on the Lifeschool Podcast, we’ll share (from our listeners and students) the top 10 roadblocks to discipleship and mission we run into all the time. We’ll discuss what’s really lurking behind each of these, and give you a way around each roadblock.
One of my readers, Dale, wrote asking, “I’m trying to learn how to integrate my missional life with my family life – balancing family time with discipling in community; how do I do that without killing my family or never really living on mission in community with others?” (more…)
